


Christmas Trees With Orange Leaves

by Sophangelo



Category: Phandom/The Fantastic Foursome (YouTube RPF)
Genre: AU, Christmas, Fluff, M/M, NonYoutuber!AU, Phan - Freeform, artist!Phil, nothing changed except their jobs, writer!Dan
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-22
Updated: 2016-10-22
Packaged: 2018-08-23 23:11:52
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,278
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8346478
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sophangelo/pseuds/Sophangelo
Summary: When Dan announces he can't spend Christmas with Phil, they celebrate a wonderful 'Christmas' in the amber months of October and November.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Christmas cannot come any sooner. It's literally not even Halloween yet and I want the old cheeky Santa to start popping up everywhere again. (Actually, come to think of it, Santa is pretty creepy, so I'll swap it in with some Jesus)
> 
> (Wait I'm an atheist)
> 
> Anyway, here's a link to a Phan video: https://youtu.be/2e-ML4SvYpE

“What the fuck?”

Phil Lester was not one to swear that much. But at the moment, as he was nestled upon a creased sofa, amongst now-forgotten Chinese takeout and his boyfriend Dan, who had just told him he wouldn’t be able to spend Christmas with him.

“Phil-” Dan combed his hand through his brown locks.

“What the hell are you doing that I can’t do with you?” Phil cut him off indignantly. He had every right to. His plans of mistletoes, eggnog, and cold days used as an excuse to cuddle were now banished from existence.

“Look, I’m sorry. But I’ve got a book thing, okay? It’s from December two to December twenty-eight. I really can’t escape it now. There were these contracts I signed a few months ago and I wasn’t really paying attention because you were texting all these things…” He trailed off, blushing.

Phil sighed. He really couldn’t blame Dan on the contract thing. If he had just kept it in his pants this wouldn’t be happening.

Anyway, how would they spend Christmas together? It’s beyond depressing to celebrate the jolly holidays in the cold, mean winds of January. And everyone knows it’s strange to put up a Christmas tree before Halloween.

But he didn’t care what anybody thought. He still wanted to celebrate his favorite holiday, whether it was late or early. He just wanted to sip eggnog under a tree with Dan, opening presents and then watching Christmas vlogs of youtubers.

“Fine.” Phil stood up, carrying a Styrofoam box of stir-fry (after all, what was Chinese food night without stir-fry?). “You sleep in your room tonight. I’ve got work to do.”

“Are you okay?” Dan asked as Phil walked back into his sanctuary of blue and green.

“Of course! I’m delightful. Work has been piling up, that’s all.”

He could tell Dan knew it wasn’t work at his art teaching job, nor his painter job. It was a scheme.

And what a beautiful scheme it was.

 

* * *

 

Dan spent the most of the night in an empty bed. He kept worrying Phil was mad at him until the blue-eyed painter had slipped into bed with him at three in the morning, tired but clearly pleased from all his ‘work’.

He woke up with no one to greet him with morning cuddles. Instead, he found a post-it on his nightstand.

 

_Buying groceries. Sorry about the empty bed. Had important errands to do. I’ll be back around ten._

_Love, Phil_

The thick underline beneath ‘important’ did not escape Dan.

He reached under his pillow and found his phone. He turned it on. The large numbers on the lock screen indicated it was ten twenty, which, in London time, meant Phil would be home soon.

Dan got up and found Phil’s shirt lying innocently on the floor. He picked it up and took a sniff. As expected, it still smelled good; it smelled of fabric softener, the cologne Phil used, and a hint of lemon. His boyfriend always smelled like lemon or something citrusy.

Too lazy to walk over to his wardrobe (which was four feet away), Dan pulled the bright-colored shirt on and headed towards the kitchen. He planned on doing his usual Saturday routine of making coffee, turning on the fireplace, and drinking aforementioned coffee as he settled into his sofa crease, scrolling mindlessly through the Internet.

He made coffee in the kitchen and retreated to the lounge, laptop and laptop charger in one hand, and a cup of coffee with too much water in the other.

Dan burst into the room, expecting the usual ‘geekiness’ to be overflowing the place.

Instead-

“Surprise!” A blushing Phil stood at the center of the room, which surprised Dan so much he jumped back and almost spilled scalding, caffeine water all over his beloved laptop.

It took Dan a second to realize that the room was scattered with what looked like Christmas decorations.

Except they looked fairly Halloween. The ‘fairy lights’ were shaped like laughing pumpkins, giving off an orange glow. The ‘advent candles’ looked like skulls. The ‘mistletoe’ hanging above Phil was actually just a tiny pumpkin. Everything was either orange or black.

But the tree was beautiful. It stood next to the television, shaped like an ordinary coniferous tree. However, the leaves were fiery, orange, red and yellow shimmering brightly. Hanging off the branches was pumpkins, skeletons, black cats, and a single orange and black striped candy cane.

“Merry Christmas!” Phil exclaimed; a wide grin had spread across his pink face.

Dan laughed. “So _this_ is what you were planning. You realize none of this looks like Christmas?” He said as he slid his arms around his beaming boyfriend.

“I did my best.” Phil looked up and pointed at the pumpkin hovering above them. “Mistletoe?”

Dan smiled and closed the space between them. Little did he know that his best ‘Christmas’ ever had begun.

 

* * *

 

“We’re making Christmas cookies?”

It was two days later, and Dan and Phil were standing in their kitchen, cookie ingredients sitting on their counter.

“Yes.” Phil affirmed happily. He picked up a bowl and an egg. “Delia Smith.”

Dan shrugged. He enjoyed Christmas cookies, and he had no problem making them with Phil.

They got into the process quickly, all the while fooling around.

“Dan, pass me the flour.”

The brunet picked up the heavy bag of flour and stared back at his boyfriend, who was looking especially attractive today. As a prank Dan had used his straightening iron to curl Phil’s hair last night. With his glasses and soft waves of raven hair, he looked absolutely swoon-worthy.

Dan tore open the bag of _Aunt Marie’s Magic Flour_ and dipped his hand into it when Phil wasn’t looking. He slowly pulled it out, wanting as much flour as he could get. Then, he spanked his powdered-covered hand against Phil’s butt, in a joking way.

Phil jumped slightly and turned around from his task of whisking to look at a giggling Dan. He rolled his eyes and smiled, taking the flour.

“Thank you, pervert. Can you fetch the vanilla essence from the refrigerator?”

Dan, laughing uncontrollably, walked over to the fridge and took out the essence. Before he turned around he felt Phil’s hand smack against his own butt.

“Revenge.” Phil whispered, Dan still facing backwards. A few moments of silence strung out before they burst out laughing.

As Dan tried to calm himself down, Phil threw a handful of flour at his back.

He turned around to face him.

“Idiot! This is a black t-shirt!” Dan shouted in a mock angrily, failing to keep a smile off of his face. He grabbed a box of baking soda and threw an handful of its contents at Phil.

A powder-war commenced, Dan and Phil creating a mess with the baking soda and flour as they hurled big amounts of it at each other with loud fits of laughter. White fog blurred their view for a while, and when it passed, they were covered in powder.

Phil reached into his bag of flour and found that it was empty. “I’m all out.”

“Me too.”

“Shall we go have a shower and have those store-brought Christmas cookies I bought yesterday?”

Phil dropped his bag with excitement, which was caused not from the Christmas cookies but the shower. “Definitely.”

Forty-five minutes later, they were both in pajamas, cuddling by the fire pit, listening to the flames crackle as they ate processed sugar cookies and drank eggnog from a box.

Dan finished a cookie and reached for another one from the plate in front of them.

“These are better than the ones we could have made.” He announced, devouring a Santa cookie.

Phil merely nodded; paying attention to nothing except for the love in his heart that was as warm as the fire- the love he only felt when he was with Dan.

 

* * *

 

 

They were sitting in an empty and cozy Starbucks. Phil had reserved the entire café for date night.

They hadn’t had a proper date night in a while, so Dan felt excited as he sipped his caramel macchiato.

“Do you know why I brought you here?” Phil asked. They were both dressed in suits, so it was probably something special. Dan, mouth filled with, hot, caramel goodness, shook his head.

Phil smiled as he stood up and outstretched a hand. “We’re going to dance.”

Dan accepted his offered hand and was led to the open floor of the café. Phil’s phone started playing through speakers. Christmas music came on. It was either Christmas specials from their favorite artists or classics like ‘jingle bells’.

They moved like waddling idiots, but they didn’t care. They were having too much fun to care. No one was in the café except them.

Soon, familiar piano came on, and the smoothness of Mariah Carey’s voice filled the Starbucks.

They laughed and danced lively to the tune, arms waving and legs kicking all over the place.

 

 _I don't want a lot for Christmas_  
There is just one thing I need  
I don't care about the presents  
Underneath the Christmas tree  
I just want you for my own  
More than you could ever know  
Make my wish come true oh  
All I want for Christmas is-

But instead of the crooning of _‘you…..’_ it switched right over to ‘Spooky Scary Skeletons’.

_  
All I want for Christmas is spooky scary skeletons…_

It switched right back to Mariah Carey after that. They stopped dancing as they had both doubled over laughing, now sprawled on the floor, reveling in ‘All I want for Christmas is spooky scary skeletons’.

When their laughs died down, Dan rolled on top of his boyfriend and kissed him delicately, a sign of thanks for the night.

“You’re incredible.” Dan whispered, still chuckling about the song.

Phil smirked. “That’s why you love me.”

“Yeah. Maybe that’s why.”

Dan laughed again as Phil pouted adorably.

They stayed on the ground, holding hands and chatting lightly, making up for the time they would sadly be losing during real December.

 

* * *

 

“Do you know what we did so much last year, when winter had rolled around?”

Dan looked up from his laptop. Phil had plopped himself down on a spot next to him in the sofa.

“Getting ourselves drunk with eggnog?”

“Well, yeah, but we already did that last week, did we not?”

The hazy memories came screaming back at him. They had drunk-texted friends, danced to nursery rhymes while they drank homemade eggnog that had _way_ too much bourbon and five shots of vodka.

It was the most fun and regrettable night Dan had ever experienced.

“Actually,” Phil’s voice snapped Dan out of his recalling of hideous memories. “I was talking about shopping twenty-four seven under the guise of buying Christmas presents.”

Dan clapped his hands together in delight. “Brilliant! When shall we do it?”

“Now is a good time.”

Now was not a good time. Dan had work to do for his next book, and he knew for a fact that Phil had to prepare the exams for the high school he taught in.

But as a master-procrastinator, Dan disregarded the document in his computer that he had been working on for the past three hours (he only wrote ten words so far) and shut his laptop down.

The clock in his phone indicated it was six in the evening, which meant they had three hours to shop their brains out.

They left at quarter to seven, as they had gotten a bit distracted whilst changing.

They arrived at London Shopping Centre, a cleverly named mall where they did eighty percent of their shopping.

Their first stop was a bookstore, where they found Dan’s last book, _Clouds_. As a joke, Phil took it from the shelf and dropped it into their basket.

“Phil, we have two copies of this at home: the hard and paperback.” Dan said as he picked out a sci-fi manga.

“It’s a Christmas gift for a loved one.” Phil winked. Dan smiled and placed the sci-fi manga in their basket.

They bought ten more books, a few of them actual Christmas gifts (because honestly, the only person they knew who would like _Breathing Heavily_ by Cassandra Weiss, a nine hundred page book about lung surgery was Dan’s dad).

As they left _Bernie’s Books_ , they spotted the new women’s clothing store, _Seasons_.

“My cousin Charlotte wants new clothes for Christmas.” Dan reminded his boyfriend, mischievous.

Phil smirked, equally mischievous. “We certainly can’t disappoint Ms. Lottie.”

Dan nodded. Truth was, Lottie wanted a MacBook air and some phone cases, but he’d find another teen girl who liked wearing pastel. “Certainly.”

They grabbed summer hats with dainty ribbons. They picked out floral-print leggings. They chose t-shirts with quotes like _music is my escape_ or _once in awhile in ordinary life, love gives us a fairytale_. They took accessories, necklaces, bracelets, wristbands, rings, and earrings filing their baskets.

In the end, they bought matching hats, an oversized t-shirt with kittens on it, some bracelets, and a sweater that said _sweater weather_.

They zipped through the mall in the span of two hours, buying a mix of Christmas gifts and things they didn’t need. The iPhone cases for Lottie had mixed in with the Nike shoes they were not going to use _ever_.

Dan and Phil arrived home late with two pairs Nike shoes, three iPhone cases, twelve books, a few Doctor Who pillows, SpongeBob earphones, a girl’s sweater, a girl’s t-shirt, two hats, four bracelets, a new Furby, a dog leash, an electronic whisk, five dad mugs, three galaxy backpacks, a tote bag that came with a set of fabric markers, six spoons that all said ‘cereal killer’, and piles of Halloween-themed wrapping paper.

They stayed in the lounge until midnight, drinking homemade eggnog and eating store-brought Christmas cookies while wrapping their presents.

When they finished, only the SpongeBob earphones lying on the floor, unwrapped amongst the ready gifts under their orange tree. Dan and Phil were lounging on the couch, eyelids drooping and yawns escaping their lips every so often.

“Our shopping wasn’t very crazy this year.” Dan whispered sleepily, brown eyes closed.

Phil gave another yawn and rested his head on Dan’s shoulder.

“Doesn’t matter. We had fun and we bought Christmas presents. Besides, we’re shopping again tomorrow.”

Dan smiled and opened his eyes, looking at an almost sleeping Phil.

“I’m sorry.” Dan murmured guiltily. Phil’s eyes shot open, confused.

“For what?”

“For not spending real Christmas with you.”

Phil looked at him with tired disbelief. He gave the brunet’s hand a squeeze and closed his eyes again.

“Don’t be an idiot. Now shut up because I’m going to sleep now.” He fell asleep as if he had done so by someone clicking on a light switch.

The only light around them was the ominous glow of the dying scented candle on the nearby dining table. Dan watched as the lemon-smelling fire slowly whittled away.

When it did, he took it as a sign to sleep, and he did. Cuddled against his forehead he rested into deep, dreamless sleep.

 

* * *

 

 

Dan and Phil devoted an entire week to shopping, buying presents and things for themselves.

(Mostly the latter, really).

Now, Dan was sitting in the creased sofa, a soft blanket covering him. He was mindlessly scrolling through Tumblr yet again, waiting for Phil to emerge from the bathroom.

His five presents for the blue-eyed boy were sitting at his feet, wrapped in skeleton paper. He heard the bathroom door open, then close, and footsteps.

Phil finally burst in, carrying two presents, excitement filling his expression. Dan smiled lovingly at him, slapped his laptop shut, and picked up his presents. He dropped onto the floor next to Phil.

“You go first.” Said Dan to Phil.

Phil did not hesitate and set his presents down on the table.

He took the largest gift from Dan tore it open like a hungry bear with a large salmon.

When the wrapping paper was in shred and forgotten on the floor, Phil lifted the lid, took a peek of what was inside, and made a sound that was an ugly mixture of a gasp and a delightful cry.

He threw the lid over his shoulder and pulled out art materials from _France_. The canvas was large and foldable and the paints were in different, unique colors, the paintbrushes shiny and wonderfully untouched by paint, and there was even a black beret. Phil placed in on his head and looked up. 

“Thank you.” He said to Dan, kissing him on the cheek.

“You’re welcome.” Dan smiled back as he handed another present to him.

Phil unwrapped it, finding a new-looking copy of a book by Dan he had never seen before. _Lion Boy_ was printed in shiny gold letters across the blue hardcover. He turned it over, but there was no book description in the back, like Dan’s books normally did. 

“I’ve never seen this one before.” Phil whispered breathlessly, flipping through the pages. A blur of words overcame him. There were no reviews from popular critics printed at the last page, no special thanks, no ‘special rights reserved’. There was nothing except the five hundred-page story.

“Two years ago,” Dan started to explain. “I decided to write a book about you. I kept it a secret, as I wanted to release it as a birthday gift for you. However, after I had finished and brought it to the publisher, you had temporarily broken up with me. I had gotten so depressed I had only remembered that _Lion Boy_ was still with my publisher two days later. When I got to her, the first and unofficial copy was printed, the official ones about to. I told her to cancel the plan. She gave me the unofficial copy and that was that. One torturing month later, we got back together, and I decided to put the book in the back of my mind and forget bout it. Needless to say, it was never published.” He tapped on the book in Phil’s hands. “This is the unofficial copy.”

Phil was still shocked. In his hands was a book written by his favorite author and person of all time. ‘Thank you’ crept into his speechless throat, but Dan simply waved him off and handed him the last and smallest gift. 

“No need. You’re the reason we’re even exchanging gifts.”

Phil nodded and took it, eyes still shining from his second gift. He opened the last present, which was no bigger than a ring box. 

He expected jewelry of some sort, but it was-

A keychain.

Phil’s emotion from before was overwhelmed by more emotions, except they were amusement and humor.

“Look into the tiny screen.” Dan advised. After Phil recovered from his laughing breakdown, he plucked the keychain (which said _Viva Las Gaygas)_ from the soft, ironically ironic velvet lining and did what Dan had told him.

There was a picture of them from their first Las Vegas trip together, when Dan had turned twenty-one. They were standing in drag queen outfits next to a billiard with a man who looked to be high. He pressed the crown-shaped button at the side of the chain, and it changed to a picture with them smoking chocolate cigars at a karaoke center. He saw more outrageous photos of them each time he pressed the button, and it finally ended of them kissing on a balcony at night, overlooking the bright lights of Vegas.

“I was having trouble on what to get you for a third gift until I remembered we had photos taken by our friend Joel. I asked him to send them to me and they came in a keychain.” 

Phil remembered a buff stripper from the first stop of their second night; Joel David Mason, who had the stripper nickname of ‘Buffy’. He insisted they call him ‘David’, but they disobeyed for whatever reasons they had drunkenly implied. 

Phil smiled as a sign of thanks, making a mental note to stick the keychain to his teacher’s bag. What fun it would be to show it to his students.

Dan grabbed a gift from Phil’s pile and unwrapped it. It was a sketchbook, filled with paintings, sketches, drawings and whatnot. Dan loved Phil’s art; even if it was unsurprising that he would make something like this for Christmas. 

“I love it.” Dan declared sincerely as he stared at colored sketches of himself in different moods. There was Existential Crisis Dan, Flirty Dan, Author Dan, Meme Dan, Sleepy Dan, Gayer-Than-Just-Gay Dan, Nerdy Dan, Squishy Dan, Exercising Dan (also known as Dan-that-does-not-exist) and Romantic Dan.

Dan chuckled. “How come Flirty Dan and Romantic Dan are different?”

Phil shrugged. “I wanted to fill the page.” 

Dan laughed and took another Halloween-covered present from Phil’s lap. This time, it was a stuffed toy of cartoon Phil, looking like Finn from _Adventure Time,_ except his black fringe was sticking out of the white hat and he had his glasses on. Sewn into the pocket was a tiny Dan, a la Jake style.

“Drawing isn’t my only artistic talent.” Phil said proudly when Dan wondered where he had gotten the toy.

“You made this?” Phil Lester, you’re a genius!” He exclaimed, voice two octaves higher than usual. “Where’s my third gift?”

Phil pulled out a metallic green envelope from inside his shirt and handed it to him.

“Bet it’s a card.” Dan guessed, thinking Phil had gone with a homemade style this year. He didn’t notice Phil shaking his head, as he was busy tearing off the upper part of the envelope.

Two plane tickets fell out. Dan picked them up from the floor and inspected them.

He saw the word _Japan_ and exploded.

“WE’RE GOING TO JAPAN?” Dan screamed, voice now six octaves higher than usual.

“Yeah.” Phil muttered uncertainly, wondering if Dan didn’t want the tickets.

His thought was disproved, however, when Dan tackled him in a hug. He wanted go to Japan since forever, and now he was going to do so with his best friend.

“WHEN?” Dan screamed again, careful not to do so in Phil’s ear.

“May twenty. 

The fact that it was months away did not stop Dan from being excited as balls. 

He then realized the pumpkin-mistletoe was above them, and he gave Phil the most thankful, loving, passionate kiss ever, because he deserved it. 

And as their kiss deepened, Dan wondered what he did to deserve someone like Phil.

 

* * *

 

 

It was December one.

Although snow had yet to cover one single surface in the UK, people had finally gotten into the Christmas spirit.

They had seen Christmas things fill up stores. Candy canes replaced candy corn; Starbucks exchanged pumpkin spice lattes for gingerbread frappes, when they entered shops they heard Christmas jingles, and the only costumes left were Santa Claus suits. 

Dan and Phil were walking in a park together, soaking up the little time they had left. Dan felt twinges of sadness when he realized again and again he would mostly be alone during Christmas season.

But then, he realized it was okay. He loved their little October-November Christmas. He recalled the little moments in between the big ones, like watching classic Christmas movies, drinking their special homemade eggnog, making Christmas cards (Dan with the writing and Phil with the art, obviously), Christmas caroling (everyone thought they were insane, but they had fun anyway) and the little Christmas gathering they had with their families. 

“Ours is better.” Said Phil as they inspected the park’s Christmas tree.

“Obviously.” Dan giggled, his hand in Phil’s.

“I have one more Christmas surprise, Dan.”

Dan raised a brow in a suggestive way. “Oh? I thought our deeds after opening presents last night was the last surprise.”

Phil blushed, recalling the events that had strung out. “No.”

Before Dan could say anything else, Phil led him closer to the tree and pointed to a little present ornament hanging from it.

Dan realized it was not an ornament, but an actual present, similar to the one that had held the Las Vegas keychain. He plucked it out from the branch and unwrapped it. It was a velvet box. He lifted the lid, and-

It was an _engagement ring_. 

Dan slapped a hand over his mouth, feeling surprise happiness surging through him as he looked at the ring.

Phil smiled and took Dan’s hand. 

“I think this is pretty obvious. Did the ring give it away?” 

Dan nodded. “Yeah, the ring did.” He realized what he said and mentally hit himself. “I mean, yes, I’ll get hitched with you!”

They said the words neither of them expected they would say, but, as Dan had said in _Lion Boy_ : 

_Perfection is a thing of imagination. It only exists in your mind, while you think it exists everywhere. Love is often associated with this thing called ‘perfection’. However, you can only truly love not if you look for perfection, but embrace its opposite. I used to think otherwise, until I met Lion Boy._

Phil remembered the book’s first words as he slipped the ring onto Dan’s finger and kissed him.

When they broke apart, Phil whispered happily in Dan’s ear: “Guess where our honeymoon is?”

It took Dan a moment for glorious realization to dawn upon him. “The Japan tickets!”

“Yes, which means we have like four months to prepare for the wedding.”

“No matter, we’ll figure it out.” Dan stared at Phil, wondering yet again what he had done to deserve him. “God, you really are a brilliant, _brilliant_ man.” 

As Dan closed the space between them, their lips locking, the first snowflake fell atop their heads.


End file.
